I
am a 30 year old substitute
teacher in the Minneapolis Public
Schools. I moved here from Montana
where I had the opportunity
to speak to young people about
feminism. I found there were
terribly distorted and vilified
impressions of feminism. I was
able to address those attitudes
and discuss where they came
from and how they were inaccurate.

I would like to develop a program
supplemental to current curriculums.
I am in the process of developing
an outline for a "guest speaker/discussion
leader" presentation on feminism.
I am seeking input from a variety
of sources and I was hoping
you might be interested in helping.
I would like this to be a pilot
program informing the development
of a nationwide operation. I
look forward to hearing from
you.

Thanks
for your note to Feminist.com
and for your ambitious undertaking--certainly
a necessary one. I would be
happy to help you in your efforts,
but first I want to make sure
that you know about some existing
programs/curriculums. There
is an organization (based in
New York City)--Educational
Equity Concepts. They have developed
a number of "gender sensitive
curriculums"--most devoted to
elementary school ages. There
is also Girls,
Inc. -- a national organization
with several local affiliates
around the U.S. Although they
don't work directly in the schools,
they function as an after-school
organizations, they have a number
of issue specific curriculums--sports,
history, science, money. There
is also the Wellsley Center
for Research on Women, based
at Wellesley College, which
has, over the years, developed
a few curriculums. And then,
there is the Third
Wave Foundation, of which I am a co-founder, which has
developed a curriculum to use
in connection with existing
"youth groups." The goal is
to add a "feminist" perspective
to their existing work in an
attempt to inform young women
and men (ages 15 to 18) about
what feminism is/isn't and how
it is already playing out in
their lives. The next step is
to hopefully inspire them to
action.

With all of that said--you may
have something entirely different
in mind, but before you potentially
"reinvented the wheel" I wanted
to make sure that you knew about
these spokes. If this is not
what you had in mind and/or
if it is, let me know and I
can see how I can help.

Thanks for thinking of me--and,
again, for taking the initiative
to change young people's attitudes
about feminism.